As publications throughout the country instruct authors to write shorter stories and cut the size and quality of paper used in print editions — if not nixing print cycles altogether — Native is buying thick, glossy pages and giving writers the green light on long-form articles.

The founders believe they prove business opportunities can be found even when others are fleeing the market. The magazine is still in its infancy, having printed its seventh monthly edition, and has yet to prove its long-term durability. However, it broke even after four months, demonstrating a hunger for a product that has been losing ground in the digital age.

“For young people, for most of our lives, print has been on its way out in a lot of ways, at least sort of in the mainstream media,” said Dave Pittman, a Native brand adviser. “In a way, it’s sort of coming back. ... Print can do things the Internet can’t do. We can make things worth hanging onto, worth keeping, things that are really fun to flip through and the design is a huge part of that.”

Native’s focus is Nashville’s creative community, from entrepreneurs to musicians, and the magazine illustrates the subject matter through full-page photos and artistic layouts and design. The magazine also designs advertisements with local companies, making the ads as visually important as the story art.

Native’s revenue is based solely on advertisements; issues are available for free at more than 100 stands in coffee shops, groceries and restaurants throughout a five-mile radius of downtown Nashville. Each month, about 10,400 copies are distributed and about 200 to 400 are brought back. Having generated profits five months after launching in July, Native projects $600,000 in revenue in 2013.

Advertisers include companies that fit the magazine’s creative focus, such as craft brewery Jackalope Brewing Co., local art subscription service Community Supported Art and Corsair Distillery. In an attempt to keep the advertising focused on the creative class, Native has turned away at least one advertiser that didn’t fit the creative tone.

“We didn’t feel their business would be relevant to our core audience,” said Publisher Jonathan Pittman. “That was the most painful thing I’ve done in my life.”

Jonathan and Dave Pittman grew up in a newspaper family, as their father, Tom Pittman, was managing partner at PH Publishing LLC, which operates the Desoto Times-Tribune and Click Magazine in Hernando, Miss., until passing the ownership to Jonathan in 2011. When Angelique and Jonathan were brainstorming ways to move to Nashville, recent Vanderbilt University graduates Dave Pittman and Mackey suggested a new local magazine that would spotlight cultural happenings or people that weren’t getting enough attention. Despite overall trends in the industry, the couple decided new strategies would work in Nashville, even in a city already heavily populated with publications.

“A local magazine is still very profitable and relevant,” Angelique Pittman said. “People want to know what’s going on in their local communities.”

Overall magazine circulation rates have dropped 1 to 2.2 percentage points per year from 2007 to 2011, according to the Pew Research Center, citing data from Audit Bureau of Circulations. In that same period, newsstand circulation dropped 8.2 to 11.2 percentage points each year. Advertising page sales have slid each year since 2006, dropping 25 percentage points in 2009 and 3.1 percentage points in 2011, based on 213 magazines tracked by the Publishers Information Bureau, according to Pew.

Jay Clarke, CEO of Franklin-based subscription company Magazines.com, which represents 8,000 magazines nationwide, said while the industry overall has been declining for the past decade, magazines that have a more defined focused have seen growth.

“The consumer still loves their print magazines,” he said. “It’s a way to disconnect and unplug and pursue their hobby and interest area. The magazines that have carved out an interesting market, an interesting niche are still doing quite well. ... In magazines, there is a flight to quality. ... The magazines that struggle to define (their) market and don’t have as passionate or as loyal of a readership, they are having a tough time.”

Like Native, those with more focused audiences especially appeal to advertisers, which adds to their durability, he said. “Advertisers love when they can go to a magazine and they know they are getting a targeted reader,” he said.

Dave Pittman said his readers desire something tactile with a shelf life that doesn’t rapidly expire.

“When you don’t have print anymore you start to really appreciate what it’s like to hold a book, a magazine or a newspaper,” he said. “Some of it is nostalgia, but people always say, it feels great in my hand.”